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The 6G‑MIRAI‑HARMONY program is a flagship initiative reflecting the deepening strategic cooperation between Europe and Japan to shape the foundations of next‑generation wireless networks. Launched under the EU–Japan Digital Partnership, it brings together leading industrial players, research institutes, and universities from both regions to jointly advance AI‑native, user‑centric 6G technologies. Rather than parallel national efforts, the program is conceived as a single, coordinated cross‑regional initiative, accelerating innovation from fundamental research through early standardization. In this context, 6G‑MIRAI stands for “Machine Intelligence‑based Radio Access Infrastructure.”

On the European side, the program is led by Ericsson, with Fraunhofer acting as Technical Lead, and brings together nine EU partners in close alignment with seven Japanese partners participating through Japan’s HARMONY project. This integrated setup forms 6G‑MIRAI‑HARMONY, a unified EU–Japan research effort aimed at harmonizing architectures, datasets, proof‑of‑concepts, and pre‑standardization activities across both regions.

At its core, 6G‑MIRAI focuses on the design of a machine‑intelligence‑driven radio access infrastructure capable of delivering reliable, robust, scalable, and energy‑efficient 6G communications. The work targets breakthrough technologies such as cell‑free massive MIMO, AI‑native RAN architectures, advanced multi‑connectivity, and intelligent, energy‑aware network control, laying the technical foundations for future large‑scale 6G deployments.

Within this framework, Sequans, as an industrial member of the EU consortium, plays a key role in bridging advanced AI‑native RAN research with real‑world device and chipset constraints. Leveraging deep expertise in semiconductor design, cellular IoT, and energy‑efficient modem platforms, Sequans helps ensure that ambitious 6G concepts remain grounded in practical implementation realities.

A key area of contribution lies in practical AI‑native air‑interface design. As 6G‑MIRAI explores new AI‑driven baseband concepts, Sequans brings a device‑centric perspective to ensure that these designs account for realistic propagation conditions, hardware capabilities, and strict power constraints. This includes work on hardware‑aware AI models for physical‑layer optimization, covering AI‑assisted precoding, power control, and link adaptation in cell‑free massive MIMO scenarios. By explicitly integrating quantization effects, RF impairments, finite‑resolution ADC/DACs, and modem power states into AI training and inference loops, Sequans helps align AI decision‑making with real chipset limitations, supporting stable, explainable, and deployable AI‑native PHY algorithms for future low‑power 6G modems.

Sequans also supports the development of AI‑enabled, distributed 6G RAN architectures, contributing to the evolution of virtualized and disaggregated RAN designs that enable intelligent network control, efficient multi‑connectivity, and scalability—capabilities that are critical for massive IoT and industrial 6G use cases. In parallel, the company contributes device‑level expertise to the program’s data, benchmarking, and validation platforms, helping ensure that open datasets and shared evaluation frameworks accurately reflect real‑world modem behavior and lead to robust, transferable machine‑learning models.

As 6G‑MIRAI advances toward proof‑of‑concept frameworks and testbeds, Sequans provides practical insights to assess feasibility, performance, and energy efficiency at the device level, feeding directly into early pre‑standardization activities. Energy efficiency remains a central design pillar of the program, and Sequans’ long‑standing experience in low‑power cellular modems helps ensure that AI‑native RAN and air‑interface innovations remain compatible with future 6G IoT chipset requirements.

Strategically, 6G‑MIRAI‑HARMONY stands out as one of the few truly bilateral EU–Japan 6G research programs, strengthening international leadership in AI‑driven 6G architectures, cell‑free massive MIMO, energy‑efficient baseband and RAN design, shared validation frameworks, and cross‑continental technology harmonization. Running for 36 months from April 2025, with a €3 million European budget, the program positions Europe and Japan jointly at the forefront of AI‑native 6G innovation. [Smart Network Europa]

Sequans is proud to contribute to an initiative that will help shape an intelligent, sustainable, and globally interoperable 6G infrastructure for the next decade.